"Yet what binds us, friend to friend,
But that soul with soul can blend?
Soul-like were those hours of yore;
Let us walk in soul once more!
"Take, O boatman, thrice thy fee;
Take,--I give it willingly;
For, invisibly to thee,
Spirits twain have crossed with me!"
"O, that is beautiful,--'beautiful exceedingly!' Who translated it?"
"I do not know. I wish I could find him out. It is certainly admirably done; though in the measure of the original there is something like the rocking motion of a boat, which is not preserved in the translation."